“The goal of our group was to organize in support of medical freedom,” organizers told the Times Observer. “We strongly believe that all Americans should continue to have the right to choose what medical procedures, medications and/or injections they put in their bodies”

The rally was coordinated by health care workers from several agencies in the county.

Those workers, however, have asked not to be identified due to concerns about retaliation in their places of work.

“Our fear is that our facilities or organizations will not take kindly to speaking out when they too are pushing for us to receive the vaccines,” they told the Times Observer. “To put it plainly, these organizations need the numbers to prove to CMS they can still receive funding.”

Participants in a rally for medical freedom held recently at the Warren County Courthouse.

CMS is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the organizers say that “as health care workers we fall under the mandidate directed by CMS” even though a OSHA mandate has been temporary invalidated as part of an ongoing legal proceeding.

Attendance at rallies can fluctuate and anywhere between 30 and 50 individuals participated in this event.

Choice was the theme of the day.

“If you choose to receive said vaccines because you think you are doing the best thing for yourself or others, then great. If you have personal health reasons, spiritual beliefs or just plain nervousness about receiving such a new type of vaccine, you should be able to make that judgment call for yourself,” they argued. “Many people also feel that once these vaccines have been in general population for a while and all studies on them are completed we may be able to more clearly know if these vaccines are safe.”

They said that studies for the Pfizer vaccine will not be completed for years.

“To be clear we have support from both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. And the fact that we as a nation even identify people in this way makes our soul sad,” they said. “As most of us at this rally were front-line health care workers we have, and continue to work through covid.

“We have faced it head on closer than many can imagine. To be mandated to vaccinate or lose your job is unconstitutional and a slap in the face to those of us who have worked and continue to work through this.”

They highlight staffing shortages in the health care field that aren’t new.

“This mandate will only exacerbate this problem,” the organizers suggest. “We hope that families start to think about what is going to happen to their loved ones, where are they going to go when there are no longer enough healthcare workers to care for them? Are they prepared to take their family members home, and care (for) them themselves? Or to potential(ly) have them sent across the country to a facility that can care for them?”

One sign at the rally equated vaccine mandates to rape. Organizers were adamant that wasn’t their position.

“As we were organizers for a rally to support medical freedom, we did not pre-approve or know every participant at the rally. We do feel that the sign was a bit extreme,” the said. “While as a group we sympathize with any rape victim and do not wish, and did not wish, to trigger any feelings. Nor was this the goal or mission of organizing a rally.”

But they say that the positive report they received “overwhelmingly outweighed any negative.”

“We had so many shouts and honks of approval and support, while only a handful of negative comments or occasional thumbs down,” they said. “None of our participants retaliated in way against those who did not support us, as that is their right to voice their own opinion.”

The rally wasn’t the only step these individuals will take in organizing around this issue.

“(W)e continue to contact our local and state representatives on the matter we have made some headway,” they said. “We are getting our voices heard. We are trying. We are fighting for every single person’s right to medical freedom. We are fighting to keep our jobs. We are fighting to keep our patients safe.”